Chitika Insights conducted a study into Mac OS X usage statistics
following the release of OS X
10.8 Mountain Lion and found that within the first 48 hours, usage
rates for OS X 10.8 were already rivaling those of OS X 10.4 Tiger. While over 45% of
users still operate on OS X
10.6 Snow Leopard, anybody using 10.6.6 or higher can upgrade to
10.8, and suggests that those who skipped the upgrade to OS X 10.7 Lion, which had mixed
reviews, may be more inclined to make the jump to Mountain Lion.

The report suggests that with 3.2% of all Mac users upgrading to OS
X Mountain Lion in the first 48 hours, Apple's latest operating system
stands to do much better than its predecessor OS X Lion, which
experienced only a 14% market share after 3 months on the market, with
Mountain Lion's rapid adoption rate supported by a relatively low price
point for the operating system as well as an expansive list of desired
feature improvements.

Publisher's note: Everyone's data set is a bit different. Based on
Google Analytics statistics for visitors to Low End Mac (see The Rapid Rise of OS X
Mountain Lion), the Developer Preview of OS X 10.8 has been
ahead of OS X 10.4 Tiger for a while now, and the day Mountain
Lion went on sale, it immediately surged past OS X 10.5 Leopard. On July 28, it
passed OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and it's steadily closing on
OS X 10.7 Lion. On Thursday, August 2, it was at 26.05% with Lion
down to 29.46%.

Launched on July 25, Mountain Lion has already passed Snow Leopard
among Low End Mac readers.

Mac users are adopting Mountain Lion at an faster rate than they
migrated to Lion a year ago, when it took Snow Leopard down from 83% of
the installed base to 50% in two months, but it still took 4-5 months
before Lion took over the top spot. At current rates, Mountain Lion
could take the top spot from Lion this month. dk

Apple Sort of Returns Save As to Mountain
Lion

MacFixIt's Topher Kessler reports that while Apple previously
removed central support for the familiar Save As file-handling
routine in OS X, that option is back in Mountain Lion, noting that
Apple's introduction of Auto Save and Versions in OS X Lion was
one of the more controversial modifications made to the operating
system, partially because as part of the changes Apple removed the
age-old Save As command and replaced it with an unfamiliar
Duplicate option.

However, he says that Apple evidently paid heed to the user protests
and returned the Save As function to OS X in Mountain Lion,
albeit still keeping it as an alternative option to the
Duplicate feature, and that while this compromise may be
acceptable to some, it still might be confusing to others who would
prefer that Apple fully restore the Save As feature.

Is OS X Snow Leopard Retired?

Computerworld's Gregg Keizer notes that Apple's refusal to put into
writing its operating system support policy leaves Snow Leopard users
wondering whether their copy of OS X has been retired, according to top
security experts, with the question "Is Snow Leopard retired?" going
legitimate as soon as Apple launched OS X Mountain Lion last week
due to the historical precedent of Apple having always dropped security
updates for OS X versions around the time it has two newer
versions in play - in other words, security update patches are provided
only to the newest OS X version and the one immediately preceding
it. Keizer observes that Apple last shipped a Snow Leopard security
update in May.

Publisher's note: Keizer raises a good question, because from the
look of things, OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard may have a larger user base than
OS X 10.7 Lion as most Lion users migrate to OS X 10.8
Mountain Lion. dk

Jonathan Ive: Apple's Goal Isn't to Make Money

Wired UK's Olivia Solon reports that Apple's senior vice president
of industrial design, recently knighted Briton Sir Jonathan Ive,
remarked at the British Embassy's Creative Summit regarding Apple, "We
are really pleased with our revenues, but our goal isn't to make money.
It sounds a little flippant, but it's the truth. Our goal and what
makes us excited is to make great products. If we are successful,
people will like them, and if we are operationally competent, we will
make money."

Recalling how, in the mid-'90s, Apple was close to
bankruptcy, Ive noted that when Steve Jobs returned to the company
in 1997, his focus was not on making money, but rather: "His
observation was that the products weren't good enough. His resolve was
to make better products."

Solon quotes Sir Jonathan adding that good design is not only
important, but a prerequisite - and that it is "really hard" - and that
to be both a craftsperson and a mass manufacturer demands discipline
and focus, saying "no to a lot of things that we want to do and are
intrigued by so that we only work on a manageable amount of products
and can invest an incredible amount of care on each of them," also
reiterating the Apple philosophy that doing market research simply
guarantees mediocrity and only determines whether you are going to
offend anyone.

The Mac's Golden Age Is Coming to an End

Mac 360's Kate MacKenzie observes that by conventional measure,
we're living in the Golden Age of the Mac, which for many years has
outpaced the growth rate of Windows PCs quarter after quarter, the
latest version of OS X widely trumpeted as one of the best ever,
and it's all about to end.

How so?

MacKenzie notes that during Apple's last fiscal quarter, the company
shipped 4 million Macs, respectable but picayune in comparison with 17
million iPads and 26 million iPhones that were shipped, for a
cumulative total of 43 million iOS units vs. 4 million Macs. Ergo:
Despite record Mac sales, the iPhone and iPad are outselling the it by
more than a 10 to 1 margin.

The reign of desktops and laptops as the computer of choice for the
great masses of computer users has arguably already ended, says
MacKenzie, with the PC and the Mac having been relegated to the dump
heap of specialized apps that require CPU horsepower and screen size
beyond that of today's handheld devices, but fewer of us will need to
do that kind of work going forward as more functionality and
convenience is added to iPhones and iPads.

The PC Is Not Dead

Tech.pinions' Ben Bajarin, a noted tablet and smartphone fan and
advocate, qualifies his title by reaffirming his conviction [shared by
your editor] that tablets and smartphones are in fact personal
computers, the reality being that consumers are using a multitude of
devices to accomplish what we have always considered personal
computing. He acknowledges that neither the tablet form factor nor the
smartphone amounts to a complete substitute for a computer with a
larger screen like a desktop or notebook, but he contends that the big
struggle many in the industry are facing is the reality that the
traditional PC is no longer the only device in consumers' lives, as it
frequently was in the days when notebooks were a huge growth
segment.

Steve Jobs unveils the Digital Hub in 2001.

"There is no longer a dominant screen," says Bajarin, declaring that
the concept of the PC as "digital
hub" - the primary screen used for computing tasks in consumers
lives - is dead, with the Cloud ascendant as the new center of personal
computing ecosystems, arguing that "the beautiful thing about OS X
Mountain Lion is that it enables and even encourages this computing
philosophy."

App Store's Future of Irrelevance

Blogger Marco Arment says that
Postbox's exit from the Mac App Store should sound familiar to
anyone who buys Mac software - the real story being one we've heard a
lot since June 1: They tolerated the App Store's lack of paid upgrade
mechanics before, but sandboxing and, more accurately, needing to
remove important features because of their incompatibility with the
current set of sandboxing entitlements was the last straw.

Arment observes that Apple's stance seems to be pretty typical of
them: Comply with the new rules or leave, which usually works for
Apple. But this time they've made a critical strategic error: Leaving
is often a better option - or the only option - for the affected
developers. Many of them have already left, and many more will.

Arment notes that he's lost all confidence that apps he buys in the
App Store today will still be there next month or next year, which
negates most of the advantages of buying from the App Store, and his
confidence has evaporated, deeming the App Store no longer a reliable
place to buy software and in significant danger of becoming an
irrelevant, low-traffic flea market where buyers rarely venture for
serious purchases.

Tech Trends

Ex-Microsoft Exec Windows 8 a 'Catastrophe' for PC
Makers

The Register's Gavin Clarke reports that Gabe Newell, the former
Microsoft executive who oversaw the first three versions of Windows
under Bill Gates during his 13 years at Redmond and the billionaire
computer games baron behind Half-Life, has reportedly called
touchscreen-friendly Windows 8 a catastrophe for everyone in the
PC space.

Quoted by All Things D speaking
at Casual Connect in Seattle, WA, Newell predicted: "I think
Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. I think
we'll lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I
think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people"

The article says Newell's company is busily porting its games
software to Linux and says he wants to make it as easy as possible for
the 2,500 games on Steam to run on
Linux as well. Newell is also not a fan of touchscreen input, calling
it a short-term idea compared to the mouse and keyboard that have
dominated computer input for 25 years, and Clarke speculates that
Newell's embrace could be the key that finally helps establish Linux as
an alternative to Windows on laptops and PCs.

Products & Services

OWC Mercury Helios PCIe Expansion Chassis Connects
with Thunderbolt

PR: OWC's new Mercury Helios PCIe Expansion
Chassis gives users of Thunderbolt port equipped computers like the Mac
mini, iMac, and MacBook the ability to tap into a wide variety of
professional-level performance PCIe adapters that were once the sole
domain of desktop workstations. Helios utilizes any half-length PCIe
2.0 card (up to 6.5") to provide a massive boost to your workflow.

Helios boasts throughput up to 10 Gb/s, and is an ideal solution for
high-performance PCIe cards made for video capture/editing, media
transcoding, audio processing, and data storage. Users of portable and
all-in-one computers can now enjoy the functionality and productivity
gains of these PCIe cards wherever their work takes them.

Software

Maxthon Web Browser Now Available for Macs

PR: Maxthon, a software developer that specializes in
state-of-the-art web browsers, has announced the launch of its new
Maxthon for Mac browser (Beta). The company says this new version
of its web browser marks an important step in Maxthon's plan to provide
users with a seamless browsing experience across multiple platforms and
devices.

The
launch of Maxthon for Mac offers Mac users the same high-performance
experience currently enjoyed by more than 100 million Maxthon users
around the world - speed, built-in features and HTML5 friendliness that
distinguish the Maxthon browser for Windows, Android, Kindle Fire, Nook
iPad, and BlackBerry - and now for Mac.

"Maxthon for Mac is the first iteration of several offerings for
Apple, to be followed by Maxthon for iPhone, which will lead to
cross-platform syncing for PC, Android and Apple," says Jeff Chen, CEO
of Maxthon. "With Maxthon for Mac, our users around the globe will no
longer have to choose one competing brand of hardware or operating
system over another."

Maxthon for Mac (Beta) includes the following features:

Out-of-the-box Video Viewing for Macs Flash and other standards are
preloaded

Free Screenshot Helper for More Professional
Looking Screen Captures

PR: Screenshot Helper shows a full screen window with a solid
color or a desktop picture so that you can take clean screenshots
without having irrelevant windows and desktop icons in the
background.

The easiest way to get a clean Desktop for screenshots on Mac OS X
is to create a brand-new user account and log in as a brand-new user.
But if you need to use your own user account for whatever reason and
you have a messy Desktop many of us do, you can use Screenshot Helper
to hide the actual desktop in order to take clean screenshots.

Screenshot Helper hides your busy desktop for cleaner
screenshots.

Feature Set

Support multiple screens.

Use the Preferences panel to change the color or the desktop
picture.

Shift - drag the window to snap to the edge of screen.

Press Cmd-B to show/hide the menu bar and the dock.

Press Cmd-U to show/hide the mouse cursor.

Press Cmd-E to cover the entire screen.

Press Cmd-D to cover the desktop icons only.

You can also make the entire screen solid black, white, red, green,
or blue to check dead or stuck pixels on your LCD screen, or for a blue
or green screen chromakey.

System requirements: OS X 10.6 or later

Free

Publisher's note: We've been using this wonderful little app at
least since since version 1.2 (2007). It's a great way to do screen
captures without all the desktop busyness getting in the way - and it
helps you create smaller, faster loading image files, which makes for
faster-loading images on the Internet. The busy screenshot above is 4x
as large as the clean one! Version 2.0
supports OS X 10.4-10.6.5. dk